The Beer Nut: Make room in the tent for Beer Camp Across America

The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company will partner with breweries from around the country to release this summer what may be the ultimate mixed 12-pack of beer ever created.

The Beer Camp Across America will feature a dozen individual brews, each brewed in collaboration with some of the best breweries from around the United States.

"It was certainly challenging to pick just 12 partners when there is a whole roll of talented brewers," said Ryan Arnold, communication manager for Sierra Nevada, based in Chico, Calif. "The brewers come from different regions of the country and some of the folks were already friends with us and some are new to us. It's exciting for all of us."

Mixed 12-packs are growing in popularity among craft brewers. It's a great way for beer fans to get several different beers in one pack, but this may be the first mixed 12-pack to have all collaboration beers.

The breweries that will be brewing a beer with Sierra Nevada are Allagash Brewing Company of Maine, the Wicked Weed Brewing and Greenman Brewery (representing the Ashville, N.C., Brewers Alliance), Ballast Point Brewing Company of California, Bells Brewery of Michigan, Cigar City Brewing Company of Florida, Firestone Walker of California, New Glarus Brewing Company of Wisconsin, Ninkasi Brewing Company of Washington, Oskar Blues of Colorado, Russian River Brewing Company of California, Three Floyds Brewing Company of Indiana and Victory Brewing of Pennsylvania.

Sierra Nevada has in the past released Beer Camp mixed packs, which featured beers brewed by several people as well as Sierra Nevada, but this will be the first time it will feature all professional brewers.

"Part of the impetus is that we're opening the second brewery in North Carolina," said Arnold. "We'll be producing beer there soon. The plan is to be able to have a grand opening in the summer."

And that's where the connection to the Beer Camp Across America comes in. After all of the beers are brewed, Ken Grossman, founder of Sierra Nevada, and representatives from all the participating breweries will tour across the country, ending in Mills River, N.C., for the opening of Sierra Nevada's second brewery. The 12-pack is scheduled to be released in July, Arnold said.

"We're hitting the road on a beer festival tour," he said. "The tour spots are going to move from west to east and we'll be stopping at brewing hubs along the way. We thought how cool is not to make it simply about us, but about the whole beer community."

Tour locations have not been finalized, Arnold said.

Also, the exact styles of beer that each brewery will be brewing with Sierra Nevada has not been determined, although several have been discussed on the Sierra Nevada blog at www.sierranevada.com.

Some of the beers that have been test brewed are a milk coffee stout to be brewed with Ninkasi, an English bitter with New Glarus, a Belgian blond with Russian River and an altibier with Victory.

The 12-pack will also be distributed through Sierra Nevada's distribution network, which means the packs will be available in all 50 states. For some beer fans, this will be the first opportunity to try several of these breweries, none of which has as wide a distribution as Sierra Nevada.

"This will be a new experience for a lot of people," Arnold said.

The Beer Camp Across America is not the only mixed 12-pack set to be released by Sierra Nevada this year. In March, a new 12-pack featuring IPAs will be released. Along with the year-round Torpedo, there will be a black IPA, a white IPA and a session (low-alcohol) IPA.

There will also be at least two other mixed 12-packs released later this year, but the beers have not been determined, Arnold said.

Email Norman Miller at nmiller@wickedlocal.com or call 508-626-3823. Check out the Beer Nut blog at blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut. Follow him on Twitter at @realbeernut. Also check out "Norman Miller, The Beer Nut" on Facebook.